Five reasons students should vote
Amidst all of the campaigns encouraging you to vote, the heated debates going on around you, and the mixed messages from the media, it can be difficult for some students to rise to the voting occasion. Forgetting the "I'll be just like Jessica Alba" and "because Ellen thinks its cool," and even "the chicks will dig it" messages for one moment, here are five practical reasons to hit the polls this autumn:
- Learning about the issues and casting a vote is a very empowering experience. It helps to shape your character, affirm your identity, and build self-respect. Even if you don't end up feeling savvy enough to debate the tough stuff with the people that live and breathe that sort of thing, you'll be able to follow it and think critically.
- On the day that the new President or Prime Minister is sworn in, you will know more about what the future holds. What will happen to your taxes, to tuition, to pollution laws? Are green technologies going to flourish, will gas prices rise, and will the troops come home? What was promised, and what are you going to do about it next election?
- Speaking of the next election, if you decide this year that you don't have the time, haven't been following the debates, or that your vote does not count anyway, you will have to wait four years before you have the opportunity that you have right now. That is a lot of time to grow, to reflect, and to have regrets.
- The chicks really will dig it. So will future employers, coworkers, peers, professors, and just about anyone else. People will pick up on the fact that you choose to educate yourself, to exercise your rights, and to care about what is going on in the world.
- You will get to join the unofficial elitist club of 'I voted so I get to complain.' If you know what we are supposed to be getting from each candidate, and pay attention to what they give, you have armed yourself appropriately. There will be no more listening to the 'he said, she said, they did not, look at what they approved' bull commercials.
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